I have a 6yr old little girl who is very bright but is having trouble finishing her work. On her report card she has all "S"s in the academic area's but in conduct she gets "N"s in stuff like compeleteing work on time, or attentive during instructional time, and demonstrates self control. As far as everything else she VERY bright. She already knows it all, picks up on a concept the first time its gone over, yet she dosen't always finish her work on time. Is she getting bored with it maybe? we are having her tested for the gifted program next year. or is this ADD? I have adult ADD, and her daddy is VERY smart , maxed out the army entrance test, was in honors classes most of his life. Do any parents out there have any experiance with this?
Had a conferance with her teachers today, 2 in a class of 15 kids. anyway we've come up with a couple of things to try. I'm sending the workbooks she does at home to school so she can do them when she's finished her other work. She's a self motivator so once she decides to do something she does it, its getting her to that point that is the problem.
She took the first 2 parts of the OL test today, when I asked her about them she said "it was easy , it was a book full of puzzles , puzzles, puzzles." so we will see. And its not that shes slow at doing it because she's trying to get it perfect , shes just not doing it she's talking, ever the social butterfly.
One of the most telling indicators for dyslexia is a very intelligent child that is performing below what you would expect for their intelligence level. This website was a lifesaver for me.
Hi B., your posting caught my attention because I am exactly on the same boat as you are. My son is 7 and extremely smart at school, loooves Math and anything that has to do with numbers. Gets annoying with repetition because he grasps concepts quickly and easily, yet he continously gets reprimanded for lack of focus and not finishing his work. I've been trying to do research and determine if he has an attention deficiency like ADD or is he too advanced and gets bored easily. Growing up I remember having the same kind of problems and I know now I would have benefited from additional challenge, so we are going to have him tested soon for ADD and see if we come up with anything.
All I can tell you is you're not alone on this and I would be very interested to know how your screenings go, I too will share our journey with you and maybe we can compare notes and hopefully find the way of helping our children in the best way possible.
Keep in touch!
E. P.
Alpharetta, GA
Don't fall into the psycho-babble trap of labelling your child "ADD". There is no such thing! Your child is smart and obviously learns at a more rapid pace than others in her age group. Put her in a school that challenges her mind not stifles it! And, whatever you do, do NOT put her on drugs in order to alter her behavior----that's what parents are for!
I too have a very bright 6 yr old girl (talked very early, enormous vocab, voracious reader etc). She's in 1st grade, reading on the 3rd grade level, doing 2nd grade math. She has no trouble with homework, as long as it's challenging enough, and often chooses to spend her time doing multiplication worksheets (at home). She had some difficulty in K with the teacher being concerned about her standing to do work and engaging the other students too much.
She's now enrolled in a Montessori Program and is in the gifted program. She has no trouble with attentiveness/self control issues and I suspect this is in part due to the freedom to move around in the classroom and ability to choose activities that are on her level. Because there are students on multiple levels in her classroom she is encouraged to tutor other students who might be struggling. All in all a better year BUT she is having trouble completing assigned work. For all of her smarts, she struggles with organization (so do I) and I wonder if she doesn't get frustrated with work that really challenges her, because everything has come so easy up to this point.
I'm afraid I don't have a good answer for you, we're still investigating, but I wanted to reply b/c your daughter sounds similar. I'd like to hear what you find out and I'll keep you posted.
Sounds like your worried over nothing. "N" means needs improvement, so what if she's not perfect, work on that stuff a little extra at home. She is probally just a little overwelmed with it all. Especally if she is tring to get it all right. Is it more important that she does things fast or correctly? I would focus on the self control thing & most likly the rest will work itself out. Besides couldn't we all use a little improvement in some areas.
B.:
It seems like you are putting importance on how smart she is and having her tested for the gifted program instead of dealing with the issue at hand which is the fact that she doesn't want to complete her work. Before you proceed with the above, I believe that you should have her tested for ADD to rule this out. What she is experiencing is very symptomatic of ADD, which leads to frustration and boredom. Also, just because she has ADD doesn't mean that she is not "gifted". Alot of children who have ADD are. They just process information and have to be handled differently. I am speaking from personal experience because of our oldest son who is now 31 was diagnosed "gifted" and having severe ADHD at the age of six and had all of the same sypmtoms you have mentioned. It is just like you mentioned about your husband who is extremely smart but has ADD. Our son now knows how to handle his ADD as an adult and knows how to control it. He is now a worldwide project manager and engineer. Your daughter can overcome this also with flying colors. Another piece of advise is this. Don't compare the learning capabilities of each child. Each child is an individual and are completely different from each other. It may make your other daughter feel inadequate just because she is having some problems. Hope this helps.
Vicky from Simpsonville, SC
Ask for a conference with her teacher. She sounds like my son who is now in 1st grade. He was tested and ID'd as gifted in Kindergarten. His gifted teacher was pulling him out of class for extra challenges even before he was able to be tested. Also, either the gifted teacher or a literacy teacher should be available to offer extra 'reading' sessions at her correct level. Ask her teacher if the kids do station work when the kids have completed their assignments. Remember, gifted doesn't mean the kids are smarter, but that they complete work differently. A child who is both smart and gifted is even more likely to be bored in a regular classroom.
Good Luck!!
I would definitely not jump to the ADD conclusion. For an intelligent child boredom could more likely explain it. The instructional time can be very dull to a child who already knows it, and not all children are internally wired to behave regardless of the circumstances. My son is a gifted 1st grader. I struggle weekly with "something else" regarding school and trying to keep him interested. He loves the social component but when you read 3-4 grade levels ahead of your peers, it can get weary. Fortunately for me, he is a compliant people pleaser so we do not have behavior issues (yet). I constantly worry about that boredom factor. I know how it feels to sit through lectures where I already know what is going to be said and it is very hard to focus. Have you asked the teacher about individualizing her work so that she can have periods of being challenged. I think public school asks an awful lot of 6 year olds to begin with, but when you add the burden of being advanced in a class that can have remedial to gifted, its tough. Let me know if there is anything from my experience I can offer. Its great to build up a peer network for dealing with a gifted child in public school.
She could be bored. My son is 6 and in 1st grade. He gets really bored because he already knows how to do the work. He just doesn't see the point in doing something he already knows over and over again. Homework is a big struggle for us. He has done the same old thing in school all day and then he has to come home and do it again and he is just fed up with it. I find myself holding him back from learning new things sometimes because I don't want his boredom to reflect badly at school. I could be teaching him so much more. I am not a fan of home school because he is the type of kid who need social stimulation everyday. The community we live in is small and does not offer much socially or I would consider home school. We are sending him to what I hope is a more challenging school next year. I hope it gets better for you and me!
I was like that when i was in school, smart but completely bored and had a heard time sticking with it, doing the homework, etc. i did very well on IQ scores so always passed and placed in the higher classes in school. How is her diet, plenty of good fats like omega 3's? No junk food, cokes, fast food, these make kids more aggressive and fidgity. A healthy snack would be raw walnuts which are the only nut containing O3's. Ritilin is not the answer and dont let them talk you into it or other drugs they are 'pushing' on kids these days. Most kids are brighter and smarter today yet the school correculum(sp?) stays the same. I found things outside of school to read because school was so boring to me. If you Add check your diet as well and add good fats to your diet as well. k
Hi B.,
My guess from what you said is that she is bored. Ask the teacher if it is possible to have extra, more challenging work for her to do if she finishes the classwork to see if that will get her moving. My high kids always love going to their extra file to pull out other work to do. You might ask her teacher if her class is set up using stations where the kids rotate as they finish or if they do everything together at the same time. Stations work great. The fast kids finish and move on to more challenging work and the kids that need more time at a station can stay longer. Also with stations the kids can be grouped by ability and actually being doing different levels of work at each station. For a child who is bright and already knows the information being taught, or that picks it up the first time it is introduced, it is extremely frustrating to have to wait around for everyone else to finish which many times is a long wait for them. Your daughter many be wondering why she has to waist her time doing something she already knows how to do. Good question! As for the N's, remember that she is only six and she is still learning and developing. Needs Improvement is not necessarily a bad thing but rather something for her to work towards as she develops. If it turns out that she is smart and bored the "N"s will go away as soon as the teacher starts challenging her. Hope this is of some help to you and your family.
My stepson was like that. He was closer to 8 when we ran into this same problem. he is very advanced, but was getting bad marks in school on things mostly relating to attentiveness, like homework and paying attn in class. What we figured out to be the problem was that he was bored. Imagine if you were stuck in a beginner computer class for hours and they were talking about how to open a document, and how to use the scroll feature to move the screen up and down and stuff like that which is just common sense to you. You'd probably start doodling and wandering off into space too! Once he was in a grade that offered advanced academics it helped a lot. And once they started to hit things he didn't already know it did too. It was mostly just a matter of time, and a matter of explaining to him that we understand that it's boring, but that he needs to find a way to pay attention so he doesn't get in trouble. Didn't help much but over time the problem just sorta corrected itself.
